Exclusive: Captain of aircraft carrier with growing coronavirus outbreak pleads for help from Navy

[demmiblue]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The captain of a nuclear aircraft carrier with more than 100 sailors infected with the coronavirus pleaded Monday with U.S. Navy officials for resources to allow isolation of his entire crew and avoid possible deaths in a situation he described as quickly deteriorating.

The unusual plea from Capt. Brett Crozier, a Santa Rosa native, came in a letter obtained exclusively by The Chronicle and confirmed by a senior officer on board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which has been docked in Guam following a COVID-19 outbreak among the crew of more than 4,000 less than a week ago.

“This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do,” Crozier wrote. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors.”

In the four-page letter to senior military officials, Crozier said only a small contingent of infected sailors have been off-boarded. Most of the crew remain aboard the ship, where following official guidelines for 14-day quarantines and social distancing is impossible.

“Due to a warship’s inherent limitations of space, we are not doing this,” Crozier wrote. “The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.”

Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php

[SheltieLover]

1. Friend's son is on that ship!

Tested neg again yesterday.

😰

Thus is ridiculous!

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[genxlib]

2. If you ask me...

This would be a better use of the military hospital ships.

Send them to meet infected ships and use it as a containment/treatment/isolation ward. Not only for military ships but the wayward cruise ships that are infected with no port to go to.

There are other options for relief facilities on land.

[marble falls]

7. I don't think so. One hospital ship wouldn't work - 4,000 sailors. What Capt. is recommending ...

taking 90% of the crew off to isolate and quarantine while remaining crew scrub down the ship does make sense.

[Basic LA]

8. Great idea!

But all we have is chaos from the top down.

[lapfog_1]

3. The Big Stick becomes The Big Sick

[bluescribbler]

4. As a Navy vet, I find this horrifying.

This can be much worse than on a cruise ship. Cruise ship passengers have individual staterooms, typically accommodations for two.
Social isolation is therefore possible. On a warship, only the officers have staterooms. Enlisted crew are housed in berthing compartments holding as many as fifty crew with bunks 2 or 3 feet apart. As the Captain notes, social distancing and isolation are impossible under such circumstances. The ships therefore are large petrie dishes for the virus which can spread rapidly out of control. The only possible saving grace is that the ship is in port, so it should in theory be possible to put the infected sailors ashore into hospitals for quarantine and treatment. That is, of course, depending on whether there are facilities ashore which can accommodate the sick, and whether they can have access to equipment, testing and treatment. Quick, decisive action is required, and that is miles above the Captain's pay grade.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

11. Me too...

Many Blessings for Guam.

Might the wars come to a halt, while travel is controlled to stop the virus spread? Could we talk / enchant, the world into a unified dance that could reset time. We could go onto the 13 month calendar to dramatize the transformations we learn to bring about.

Feeding people will be a challenge, if you can contribute to the production of any garden produce, I suggest you do that now.

There isn't leadership at the top. How do we unite around problems and lead ourselves into the future?

How will the top brass handle this situation? And how will wars for oil be brought to an end? The Military needs to come home, there is a Nation to be rebuilt.

ADW

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

12. after writing that, this email comes to me:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future?fbclid=IwAR0wVfHYXoPnJUuMhneZdeXs3lSrQmI0ubIETady04ulgddkUw7sim-o0r0

[bluescribbler]

14. Thank you for sharing that.

The author speaks an inconvenient truth. It deserves its own thread.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

15. I, too, am a NAVY vet and this is outrageous.

The trump flunkee secretary of the service, said that they have known about this situation for seven days. You can erect an entire tent city in seven days. I've seen the Army Corps of Engineers do just that.

And the Teddy Rose is not a large ship, as air craft carriers go. It's a Nimitz class. So about 4,000 hands. There are bigger carriers out there.

Do they honestly expect us to think that they did not think about NAVY ships at sea ? Fuck me blind, but that is beyond STUPID. Have they even remembered that we have submarines ?

Sweet Baby Jesus. Save us from the incompetence and arrogance of this administration.

[yaesu]

5. tRump reminds me of Col. Charles Hagadorn of Camp Grant near Rocfford Il in 1918

Watch starting at 4:55 on the video

[dalton99a]

9. +1

[drray23]

13. very good video. thank you .nt.

[IronLionZion]

6. Trump claims to support the troops

so it's time for him to lose some military support for letting so many die during peacetime.

Ships are not suitable for treating highly infectious patients so spreading it is inevitable until they can get everyone off for a deep clean and disinfect. That's just how it is.

[keithbvadu2]

10. Trump Virus quotes:

Trump Virus quotes:

“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China... we’re going to see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes." Trump, Feb 2nd, Fox News interview.

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA." Trump, Feb 24th tweet.

“We have it so well under control." Trump, Feb 26th, news conference.

"This is a very contagious virus. It’s incredible. But it’s something that we have tremendous control over." ~Trump, Press briefing, March 15, 2020.

'I don't take responsibility at all'

[artemisia1]

16. This Captain puts the welfare of his people over getting a star as a RADM, which means he deserves

This Captain puts the welfare of his people over getting a star as a RADM, which means he deserves one and is the kind of flag officer we need. Unfortunately, President Trump's known vindictiveness means that this man's career is likely over.